SPOKES VOL. LXIV NO. 24 December 19, 2017
We were greeted by Tony Martorano and Bob Stickland this almost spring-like Tuesday morning.
President Renner opened our meeting with “God Bless America” and Art Ayers offered our invocation, including prayers for Carol Averill who suffered a heart attack, Korky Ingersol who is recovering from hip replacement surgery and Jean Stein who continues to recover from her broken arm.
Guests:
Our visitor this morning was Doris McGivit from Junior Achievement.
Spotlight:
We had two spotlights this morning.
First, President Renner presented Matt Schaffer with a Christmas gift from the club for his dedicated service to us, providing amazing breakfasts each Tuesday morning.
Secondly, Doris McGivit was presented a check from our club to help support the Junior Achievement programs at South Haven. Junior Achievement’s main focus is entrepreneurial education, but their programs at the elementary level work to educate students on money management and their own economic success.
Music:
Bob Boerma was our song leader this morning and we were much improved over our performance last week at Hawkshead. Our first song, the slow tempo’d 1928 hit “Together” "Together" was the title cut for a 1964 collaborative album by Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells. I can only assume that their version was a little more “Motown” than our version. We moved up-tempo with another 1928 classic, “When You’re Smiling” which Dean Martin also sang, sometimes parodying it as "When You're Drinkin'". We finished with the Christmas themed “Rotary, My Rotary” sung to the tune of “O Tannenbaum”.
Announcements:
- Don’t forget our community dinner at the Methodist church today and this evening. If you are working, please wear your Rotary shirt and a hat.
- We are also working the Thursday Night Supper at the Congregational Church on Thursday and we are promised some exciting entertainment, too.
- Bell Ringing will take place on Saturday, December 23rd. Please put this date on your calendar and plan to give us a (cold) hand.
- Also tonight is the last event in the South Haven Performance Series, at 7:30 at Peace Lutheran Church, featuring the South Bend Singers.
- Martin Luther King Service Day looks like it will be held on January 15th.
- Bob Straits mentioned that bills will be emailed out today. They will be a bit “heavy” as they include bills for your shirts, Christmas dinner, breakfasts for the last three months and club and district dues.
50/50
Jerry Gruber had the lucky ticket today but then drew the queen to go home empty handed. Art Ayers must have read the wrong ticket as he said he had the $2 winner.
Fines:
- Tom Ruesink indicated that we have raised more than $1700 for We Care so far and will collect money through today’s meeting.
- Note that not all of the information about birthdays and anniversaries may be completely accurate because of the large number of celebrations. If you have any corrections, contact Art Ayers and he will include them in the next issue of Spokes in January.
- Deb Davidson celebrated the 16th birthday of her grandson Marcus and the birthdays of her sister and brother.
- Jerry Gruber celebrated the birthday of his son.
- Bob Stickland paid for birthdays for his son and grandson.
- Tom Fleming reached a milestone birthday, as did his son, this week. He mentioned the number 39.
- Jeff Melvin and his lovely wife Tammy are celebrating their 30th anniversary this today.
- Bob Copping paid for the birthdays of a grandson and granddaughter. He was also enticed to telling one of his famous stories but couldn’t decide which story was the lessor of two evils.
- Jean Stein and her great grandson both celebrated birthdays on the same day this week.
- Art Ayers is looking forward to having all five of their children home for the holidays.
- Tom Fleming reminded us about Big Ten Tuesday at Shell stations, even though he is selling gas at below his cost and wouldn’t mind if we paid an extra dime a gallon.
- Larry Wittkop was proud to add his picture from the paper (paid for by Tom Renner) to the collection of pictures of his grandchildren on his refrigerator.
- Tom Ruesink reminded the snowbirds heading for west Florida that they will meet in February.
Our Meeting was a Club Assembly for the purpose of reviewing changes in our By-Laws and electing next year’s officers.
Mark Odland presented the draft of the changes in our by-laws.Most of the changes centered on definitions in the kinds of memberships we offer, including the addition of a Corporate Membership in which the lead officer of a corporation or institution becomes a member, but other leaders in the organization may take turns attending weekly meetings.
Mark also reviewed other changes and provided everyone with a copy of the proposed by-laws.
Richard Swanson moved that we adopt the new by-laws as presented and Don Hixson seconded the motion.The motion was passed by voice vote with no objections.
Next, President Renner presented the slate of officers for the 2018-19 Rotary year.He asked for nominations from the floor and hearing none, accepted Larry Wittkop’s motion to elect the officers as presented.Don Hixson again provided the second.The motion was passed by voice vote with no objections.It was noted that the office of Vice President is not filled and arm twisting will continue until we get a “volunteer” to fill that position.
We closed our meeting with the Four Way Test.
Next week’s program: NEXT MEETING IS JANUARY 9th The program will be Stu Comiskey and a tour of the Cumberland Gap.
Next week’s Greeters: Dan Thompson and Bill Roberts
Editarian: Dene Hadden